Praise for Freeman’s: California
“Assimilation, or rejection of that notion, is a running theme throughout Freeman’s: California, whether to the demands of California’s wild or the dominant capitalist culture . . . Work by Lauren Markham, Robin Coste Lewis, Héctor Tobar, Jennifer Egan, Oscar Villalon, and Rachel Kushner elevates it to a necessary piece in a literary California collection.”—Los Angeles Times“Captures the western state’s complex history through the eyes of both new writers and established names . . . From every facet of the literary world, this cacophony of fresh and well-known writers with every award under their collective belts movingly interprets struggles and dreams in the Sunshine State.”—Shelf Awareness (starred review)
“The work is wide-ranging, by newcomers and established talents: Xuan Juliana Wang, Elaine Castillo, Frank Bidart, D.A. Powell. It tells the story of California in pieces, which is the only way it can be told . . . The point—or one of them—is that, in California, one must learn to persevere. In this collection, California in all its glorious complexity comes vividly to life.”—Kirkus Reviews
“California—land of golden dreams, proud melting pot, home to both the poor and the unimaginably rich—is an amalgam. Her complexities are captured in the essays of Freeman’s: California, which reaches across time and cultures to indicate what the state means to its variety of inhabitants . . . For those whose dreams carry them westward, Freeman’s: California will prove to be a knowing guide, diving deep into the contemporary state, from its southern border up to its golden gates.”—Foreword Reviews
Praise for Freeman’s
“There’s an illustrious new literary journal in town . . . [with] fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by new voices and literary heavyweights . . . alike.” —Vogue.com
“A terrific anthology . . . Sure to become a classic in years to come.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Ambitious.”—O Magazine
“Freeman draws from a global cache of talent . . . An expansive reading experience.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Looking at what John [Freeman] has put together in [his] first edition, I’m struck by how many names I don’t know and how diverse and global it is. My only disappointment is that it’s going to be twice a year—I think we need it 4 times a year.”—James Wood, Radio Boston
“Illuminating . . . Perfect reading for our ever-accelerating times.”—NPR’s Book Concierge
“Freeman’s is fresh, provocative, engrossing.”—BBC.com
“A first-rate anthology of bold, searching and personal writing by emerging and established writers.”—Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“From the abstract to the literal, there is no shortage of provocative, thoughtful pieces here.”—Publishers Weekly
“Freeman’s sets a new standard for literary journals . . . It’s refreshing and full of nuanced stories that will linger with you long after you finish them.”—Chicago Literati
“[An] infinitely relatable and beautifully crafted prose and poetry anthology . . . Freeman has assembled a thoughtful and profoundly accessible collection of work that connects our vulnerabilities, our expectations and our hopes.”—Newcity Lit
“[A] thrillingly unique collection of voices.”—Toronto Star
2019-07-15
John Freeman understands California.
Freeman was raised in Sacramento, and his sensibility is personal but also collective in the sense that he has thought deeply about the state. "California," he writes in his introduction to this sixth issue of his eponymous literary journal, "has for a long time been seen as the Valhalla of far-flung dreams.…California is also, however, the site of real people's homes.…This schism—between what California represents in popular imagination and what it is, what it means to live there, to be from there—means Californians collide constantly with the rupture of existence." Such a notion animates the 30 pieces of prose and poetry gathered here. The work is wide-ranging, by newcomers and established talents: Xuan Juliana Wang, Elaine Castillo, Frank Bidart, D.A. Powell. It tells the story of California in pieces, which is the only way it can be told. Jaime Cortez writes of fire and evacuation: "It occurs to me that in unison, millions of us are inhaling the sofas and ottomans of Paradise, the cars and gas stations of it, the trees and lawns, the clothes and detergent, the wedding pictures and divorce papers, the cadavers." Héctor Tobar imagines a boy left alone so often by his working mother that she no longer needs to warn him, "Don't turn on the stove or play with matches. Don't open the door if anyone knocks. Don't play with the electrical plugs." Both writers are addressing what we might call ordinary peril—or more accurately, the necessity of doing what we have to do. Such a requirement sits at the center of California life. Some of the work touches on the broader myths by which the state is often stereotyped: Jennifer Egan on post-1960s San Francisco, Geoff Dyer on cannabis culture, Rachel Kushner on cars. But even here, the focus is on the idiosyncratic, the individual, rather than on the cliché. "We have not talked about your transcendence," former poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera insists in "California Brown," a poem that recapitulates, in part, the state's virulent racial history, "we have not talked about the forces of power / ripped into your bones & flamed out of your face." The point—or one of them—is that, in California, one must learn to persevere.
In this collection, California in all its glorious complexity comes vividly to life.
